ARTICLES

 

Theological Education for "Christian Witness in a Multi-Religious World"

 

 

Bernard Ott

 

 

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ABSTRACT

The ecumenical document Christian Witness in a Multi-Religious World begins with the statement, "Mission belongs to the very being of the church. Proclaiming the word of God and witnessing to the world is essential for every Christian." This study explores the question of how this affirmation, which represents an ecumenical consensus, can be realised. The study starts from the conviction that theological education plays a central role in this realisation process. Using the pedagogical concepts and tools used in education today-fitness for purpose, competence orientation and learning objectives-a qualification framework is developed to offer the possibility of integrating the objectives of the above-mentioned document into theological education.

Keywords: Mission, Christian Witness, Multi-Religious World, Theological Education, Ecumenical

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1. Introduction

The understanding that the church is missionary by its very being is not a new insight. However, what seems to be a consensus in theological theory is still far from being realised in church practice. Furthermore, the implementation of anything in the church will be closely related to preaching, teaching and leadership. These ministry tasks are, in turn, mainly shaped by theological education. Consequently, the implementation of the conviction that the church is missional in nature will depend largely on theological education and ministerial formation. That is the focus of this paper.

Starting from an ecclesiology defined by the missio Dei, as has become standard since the 1952 World Mission Conference in Willingen, David Bosch (1991:492-496) pleaded as far back as 30 years ago that we needed to move "From Theology of Mission to a Missionary Theology" (Bosch, 1991:492). In my own research and writing, I have argued with many others that we need theological education that is thoroughly shaped by the missio Dei (Ott, 2001a; Ott, 2001b; Ott, 2001c; Kirk, 2005).

Based on these well-founded premises, I analyse in this study how the concerns and proposals of the document Christian Witness in a Multi-Religious World could and need to feed into theological education and ministerial formation. The questions can be framed as follows: How do we need to train theologians, pastors, and church leaders so that they are "fit for purpose" in the sense of being competent to lead the church towards the proposed values, attitudes and practices? How can students in theological education acquire the competencies necessary to put into practice the concerns and proposals of the document Christian Witness in a Multi-Religious World in the church?²

These questions imply that the afore-mentioned theological convictions will be put into an educational framework. However, first, this educational framework will be defined by two concepts: "fitness of purpose" and "fitness for purpose." The latter has become the most powerful axiom of the quality movement in education (West-Burnham, 1999:323). This means that we first need to define the purpose carefully before we can look at the "fitness for purpose" specifically (Lester, 1999:104). This is the sequence of steps that I follow in this study.

In addition, I will look at the educational processes through the lenses of competence orientation and character formation. These concepts will be introduced at the beginning of Chapter two.

This leads to the following outline of this study: Under the heading "fitness of purpose," I first propose the purpose of theological education based on the document Christian Witness in a Multi-Religious World. Of course, this document cannot be the only normative foundation for articulating the purpose of theological education. However, as I will show later, its strong missional orientation and its ecumenical scope make it a valid point of reference for theological education. In a second step, regarding "fitness for purpose," I propose consequences for developing curricula derived from the document's text, focusing on competencies and character.

 

2. Fitness of purpose: The purpose of theological education derived from "Christian Witness in a Multi-Religious World"

We need to start with an introduction to the document Christian Witness in a Multi-Religious World, which is the result of a 5-year process (2006-2011) of reflection and interaction by the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue (PCID), the World Council of Churches (WCC), and World Evangelical Alliance (WEA). The ecumenical scope of this document is of historical significance. It is, therefore, more than appropriate to take this text as the basis for defining mission-oriented theological education.

It is important to note that it is not the intention of the document "to be a theological statement on mission but to address practical issues associated with Christian witness in a multi-religious world."

More precisely, the purpose of the document

is to encourage churches, church councils and mission agencies to reflect on their current practices and to use the recommendations in this document to prepare, where appropriate, their own guidelines for their witness and mission among those of different religions and among those who do not profess any particular religion. It is hoped that Christians across the world will study this document in the light of their own practices in witnessing to their faith in Christ, both by word and deed (WCC, 2011:3).

The recommendations at the end of the document call for the implementation of the proposed attitudes and behaviour. Such implementation depends largely on leadership, preaching and teaching, which are strongly shaped by theological education. This makes theological education key for the implementation of the goals stated in the document.

This fact should encourage us to explicitly link this document to theological education. This is now done here by first defining the fitness of purpose in the light of the document.

The preamble of the document starts with the following statement (WCC, 2011):

Mission belongs to the very being of the church. Proclaiming the word of God and witnessing to the world is essential for every Christian. At the same time, it is necessary to do so according to gospel principles, with full respect and love for all human beings.

This introductory statement allows us to formulate a threefold purpose of theological education: (1) Mission belongs to the essence of the church; therefore, the purpose of theological education is to serve the church in mission. (2) This is further specified by two actions described as being essential: Proclaiming and witnessing God's word. (3) Finally, this should be done in an attitude that corresponds to the content of the message, i.e. respectfully and with love.

This introductory statement on the essence of church and mission aligns with the ecumenical consensus that has emerged over the past three to four decades. I must limit myself here to a few examples.

David Bosch's call for "a missionary theology" is one of the characteristics of an "Emerging Ecumenical Missionary Paradigm" (1991:368). In my doctoral research in the late 1990s, I took Bosch's proposal further into theological education (Ott, 2001a). However, I was not the only one who thought about and researched mission and theological education in those years.

Only a few years after Bosch's Transforming Mission (1991), Andrew Kirk published The Mission of Theology and Theology as Mission. His critical view of Western models of theological education and his alternative proposal were shaped by his experiences in Latin America, not least by his encounter with liberation theology (see his earlier book Liberation Theology, 1979). Kirk (1997:8, 31-42) defines the mission of theological education with two statements. First, "To Make Sense of the Whole of Life by Reference to God." Second, "To be an Agenda of Transformation, So that the Whole of Life May Reflect God's Intentions." Even though Kirk is not using the language of proclamation and witnessing, it becomes clear that the purpose and mission of theological education is to equip the church in mission. Later in the book, he adds that all this must be done "in Christ's Way" (Kirk, 1997:43). Again, the way we do theology in attitudes and actions must be congruent with the content of the message.

Towards the end of the 20th century, the term missional emerged and became a key concept to define an understanding of mission that moved beyond the legacy of the Modern Mission Movement, which was heavily shaped by the colonial era and the expansion of Western institutionalised churches. Lesslie Newbigin is typically seen as the father of missional thinking, and the Gospel and Our Culture Network can be seen as an early catalyst of the missional movement (Goheen, 2010; Guder, 1998; Reppenhagen, 2011). In 1999, Robert Banks presented his challenging study on a missional vision for theological education. His book Reenvisioning Theological Education: Exploring a Missional Alternative to Current Models was nothing less than an urgent call to rethink theological education in light of the New Testament. His key point is that theological education is not just about mission, the mission of God and the church in mission, and it is not just education for the participation in God's mission; it is education as mission and in mission, as modelled by Jesus and the apostle Paul (Banks, 1999:42-143; 94-124).

Finally, I would like to refer to two relevant documents, the World Report on the Future of Theological Education in the 21st Century published in 2009 by the WCC and WOCATI in connection with the Edinburgh 2010 reflections. In the first statement under the title "Foundations and Clarifications," mission and theological education are connected (ETE/WCC & WOCATI, 2009:8). It is made clear from the beginning that mission and theological education fundamentally belong together. This is affirmed in the third statement under the heading "Theological education empowering and informing Christian mission." Here we read (ETE/WCC & WOCATI, 2009:22):

There is a widespread consensus nowadays that theological education does not only have Christian mission as one of its primary objects and elements of the theological curriculum, but theological education itself is part of the holistic mission of the Christian church and therefore is missionary in its character. There is plenty of material, reference texts and major studies from recent years affirming the missionary nature of theological education and the need of theological education to be more orientated towards the missionary tasks of the whole Christian Church.

The references added to this statement show that a number of the most important recent studies on the topic are processed here. The summary statement of the chapter affirms again "that theological education as a whole participates in the task of equipping people for participating in God's mission in today's world" (ETE/WCC & WOCATI, 2009:24). Later-in article 8-the document speaks about "Theological education and a missionary spirituality," asking "Which models of theological education can prepare and equip people for a commitment to integral mission and deepen a missionary spirituality?" (ETE/WCC & WOCATI, 2009:37).

At about the same time (2010), the Third Lausanne Congress on World Evangelization took place in Cape Town, South Africa. In the Cape Town Commitment, which emerged from this gathering, we find a section on "Theological Education and Mission" (Lausanne, 2010:68-70). Based on the Great Commission (Matthew 28:16-20) and the work of the apostle Paul, the document claims that "theological education is part of mission beyond evangelism." In an explicit call for action, the document states:

Those of us who lead churches and mission agencies need to acknowledge that theological education is intrinsically missional. Those of us who provide theological education need to ensure that it is intentionally missional, since its place within the academy is not an end in itself, but to serve the mission of the Church in the world.

It is time for a stopover. A growing consensus is emerging from the research and the conversations of the last three to four decades, claiming that the purpose of theological education must be intricately linked to the church participating in God's mission. In his doctoral research, Joachim Pomrehn (2019) shows that the vision for theological education as "participating in the missio Dei" is shared by theological educators across the various traditions of Christianity: Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant and Evangelical.

With its introductory statement, the document Christian Witness in a Multi-Religious World places itself in this tradition of growing consensus that it belongs to the very essence of the church to be sent, missional, and participate in God's mission. However, the document does not explicitly address the role of theological education as the afore-mentioned authors and documents do. It is, therefore, time to broaden the concerns of the document to the consequences for theological education. We find an implicit invitation to do so in the document itself. The recommendations at the end of the document contain a call to study the concerns formulated and implement them in various contexts. This is where theological education comes in. Without the implementation of the concerns and calls articulated in this document in theological education, there will be little implementation at the church base.

Such an implementation of the document in theological education will begin with a definition of the purpose of theological education in the light of the document. Based on what has been developed in this chapter and with reference to the introductory statement of the document Christian Witness in a Multi-Religious World, I propose the following purpose statement: Theological education, by its very essence and purpose, is part of the church participating in God's mission. Theological education is, therefore, missional in its nature and orientation. This results in a threefold ministry in and to the church - echoing the opening statement of the document:

• The essential purpose: Equipping the church to participate in God's mission.

• The essential tasks: Equipping "every Christian" to proclaim and witness the word of God.

• The essential attitudes: Equipping the church to be and act "in mission" with respect and love.

Based on this clarification of the fitness of purpose, the fitness for purpose can now be defined in a second step.

 

3. Fitness for purpose: Developing curricula that serve the implementation of the document "Christian Witness in a Multi-Religious World"

How can theological education be done so that it serves the defined aim and purpose?

In educational terms, this leads to the articulation of intended learning outcomes. Learning outcomes focus on what the learner does, learning activities, and the assessment tasks (Biggs & Tang, 2011:16-22; 100-108). According to the state of educational theory, learning objectives are defined in terms of competencies. However, this is not the place to enter into an in-depth discussion of the controversial debate on competency-based education (cf. O'Reilly, Cunningham & Lester, 1999; Bruckmann, Reis & Scheidler, 2011). For our purposes, it is sufficient to use the definition proposed in the European Qualifications Framework (EQF). Other frameworks in other parts of the world use comparable definitions. For example, the EQF (2008:10) defines competence as follows:

"Competence" means the proven ability to use knowledge, skills and personal, social and/or methodological abilities, in work or study situations and in professional and personal development.

The point is that competencies arise from a combination of several elements, such as knowledge and skills, as well as personal traits and social abilities. Together they form the "capabilities necessary to achieve maximum impact" (OECD Competency Framework).

One of the major critiques of competency theory is that aspects of spirituality, virtues and character are not sufficiently addressed-if they are addressed at all. This, of course, becomes particularly significant in theological education and ministerial formation. It is only a more recent development to emphasise spiritual formation and character education more explicitly, in education in general, but especially in theological education (cf. Oxenham, 2019).

Based on this observation, I will apply a two-fold taxonomy in the following analysis. First, I will take the 19 statements of the document Christian Witness in a Multi-Religious World and ask which explicit and implicit learning outcomes can be derived using knowledge, skills and competencies on the one hand, and spirituality, virtues and character on the other?

The first section of the document outlines six foundations for a responsible and respectful Christian witness. From these six statements, the following learning outcomes for theological education can be derived (see table).

The realisation of the foundational statements of the document requires competencies and character that may best be summarised by the phrase "mission in bold humility" - a formula related to the work of David Bosch (Saayman & Kritzinger, 1996). It is a boldness and a humility rooted simultaneously in a solid knowledge of biblical theology, the comprehension of the history of mission, and deep spirituality.

Part 2 of the document unfolds these basic principles further by identifying 12 principles for a Christian witness in "bold humility." Some points require competencies and character similar to those articulated in Section 1, but additional aspects emerge as we look carefully at these 12 principles (see table).

The result emerging from this exercise may be called a qualifications framework for the implementation of the document Christian Witness in a Multi-Religious World in theological education. Of course, we have to move from the definition of learning outcomes to the development of learning processes according to the principle of constructive alignment. This needs to be done contextually in specific situations and institutions and cannot be part of this paper. However, based on constructive alignment theory, developed byJohn Biggs and Catherine Tang (2011:100-104; 113-132), the development of the learning process can be outlined in three steps:

 

 

 

 

• First, the Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs) need to be defined. The qualifications framework derived from the document Christian Witness in a Multi-Religious World proposed in this study could provide the raw material for this first exercise.

• Second, the Teaching/Learning Activities (TLAs) need to be spelt out. Of course, the key questions are: What must the learner do to be empowered to achieve the learning objectives? What must the teacher do to get the learner to do what they need to do in order to learn?

• Finally, we will define Assessment Tasks (ATs), in other words, the products a learner submits to assess learning achievement.

 

4. Conclusion

If the implementation of the document Christian Witness in a Multi-Religious World is to be successful, it will need educational efforts at every level. The document explicitly names "churches, national and regional confessional bodies and mission organizations, and especially those working in interreligious contexts" (2011:6); however, it does not refer to theological education.

In this study, I have asked: How are pastors, teachers, and leaders to lead the church in the direction the document shows if they are not prepared for it in their training? If the document Christian Witness in a Multi-Religious World must have the impact the authors so desire, theological education must check its fitness of purpose as well its fitness for purpose.

This study suggests a definition of the purpose of theological education in the light of the document Christian Witness in a Multi-Religious World (fitness of purpose). It proposes a framework of qualifications based on the statements expressed in this document. These may provide guidelines and tools for the development of curricula which are fit for purpose in the sense that they enable preachers, teachers, and leaders of the church to implement the foundations, principles and recommendations of this significant ecumenical document.

The education of preachers, teachers, and leaders for the church, customarily called ministerial formation, must filter down to equipping every Christian to proclaim the word of God and witness to the world, as articulated at the beginning of the document Christian Witness in a Multi-Religious World.³

 

References

Banks, R. 1999. Reenvisioning theological education: Exploring a missional alternative to current models. Grand Rapids and Cambridge UK: Eerdmans.         [ Links ]

Biehl, M. & Vellguth, K. 2016. Christliches zeugnis in ökumenischer weit: Konvergenzen und divergenzen als bereicherung des missionsverständnisses. Aachen: Missio and Hamburg: EMW.         [ Links ]

Biggs, J. & Tang, C. 2011. Teachingfor quality learning at university. Maidenhead: Open University Press.         [ Links ]

Bosch, D. 1981. Witness to the world: The Christian mission in theological perspective. Atlanta: John Knox.         [ Links ]

Bosch, D. 1991. Transforming mission: Paradigm shift in theology of mission. Maryknoll: Orbis.         [ Links ]

Bruckmann, F., Reis, O. & Scheidler, M. 2011. Kompetenzorientierte lehre in der theologie: Konkretion - reflexion - Perspektiven. Münster: LIT.         [ Links ]

Bush, T. & Bell, L. 2005. The principles and practices of educational management. London: Paul Chapman.         [ Links ]

ETE/WCC. & WOCATI. 2009. Theological education in world Christianity: World report on the future of theological education in the 21st century. Geneva: WCC.         [ Links ]

European Communities. 2008. The European Qualifications Framework for lifelong learning (EQF). Online. Available at: https://europa.eu/europass/en/european-qualifications-framework-eqf (Accessed 12 July 2021).         [ Links ]

Goheen, M.W. 2010. Historical perspectives on the missional church movement: Probing Lesslie Newbigin's formative influence. Trinity Journal for Theology and Ministry, 4(2), 62-84.         [ Links ]

Guder, D. 1998. Missional church: A visionfor the sending of the church in North America. Grand Rapids and Cambridge UK: Eerdmans.         [ Links ]

Haywood, D. 2017. Kingdom learning: Experiential and reflective approaches to Christian formation. London: SCM Press.         [ Links ]

Haywood, D. 2021. Reimagining ministerial formation. London: SCM Press.         [ Links ]

Kirk, A. 1979. Liberation theology: An Evangelical view from the third world. Atlanta: John Knox.         [ Links ]

Kirk, A. 1997. The mission of theology and theology as mission. Valley Forge: Trinity Press International.         [ Links ]

Kirk, A. 2005. Reenvisioning the theological curriculum as if the missio Dei mattered. In: P. Penner (ed.). Theological Education as Mission (pp.15-38). Schwarzenfeld: Neufeld Verlag.         [ Links ]

Lester, S. 1999. Assessing the self-managing learner: A contradiction in terms? In: D. O'Reilly, L. Cunningham & S. Lester (ed.). Developing the Capable Practitioner. Professional Capability through Higher Education (pp.99-108). London: Routledge.         [ Links ]

OECD. 2014. Competency framework. Online. Available at: https://www.oecd.org/careers/competency_framework_en.pdf (Accessed 12 July 2021).         [ Links ]

O'Reilly, D., Cunningham, L. & Lester, S. 1999. Developing the capable practitioner: Professional capability through higher education. London: Routledge.         [ Links ]

Oxenham, M. 2019. Character and virtues in theological education: An academic epistolary novel. Carlisle: Langham.         [ Links ]

Penner, P. 2005. Theological education as mission. Schwarzenfeld: Neufeld Verlag.         [ Links ]

Pomrehn, J. 2019. Die bestimmung der theologie und theologischen ausbildung zur teilhaber an der missio Dei: Eine bildungstheoretische, theologische und empirische Untersuchung. Münster: LIT.         [ Links ]

Reppenhagen, M. 2011. Auf dem weg zu einer missionalen kirche: Diskussion um eine 'missional church' in den USA. Neukirchen: Neukirchener Verlag.         [ Links ]

Saaymann, W. & Kritzinger, K. 1996. Mission in bold humility: David Bosch's work considered. Maryknoll: Orbis.         [ Links ]

WCC. 2011. Christian witness in a multi-religious world. Online. Available at: https://www.oikoumene.org/resources/documents/christian-witness-in-a-multi-religious-world (Accessed 10 July 2021).         [ Links ]

West-Burnham, J. 1999. Understanding quality. In: T. Bush & L. Bell (ed.). The Principles and Practices of Educational Management (pp.313-324). London: Paul Chapman.         [ Links ]

 

 

1 Professor Extraordinarius, University of South Africa, College of Human Sciences, Department of Christian Spirituality, Church History and Missiology. He is also Academic Dean, Director of Doctoral Studies, European School of Culture and Theology, Akademie für Weltmission/Columbia International University. He can be contacted at bernhard.ott@atticstudio.ch
2 I was first challenged to reflect on these questions when I participated at the MissionRespekt Consultation 2016 in Elstal/Berlin. The MissionRespekt process focuses on the implementation of the document Christian Witness in a Multi-Religious World in Germany, however, in ecumenical and global conversation (Biehl & Vellguth, 2016). I am also indebted to Timo Andreas Doetsch, who is currently working on his doctoral dissertation at the University of Freiburg (Switzerland), analysing the history, the context, the content and the reception of the document Christian Witness in a Multi-Religious World. The conversations with him opened my eyes to many significant aspects of the document and its context.
3 This interrelatedness of ministerial formation and Christian formation has been convincingly argued by David Haywood in his two recent books Kingdom Learning (2017) and Reimagining Ministerial Formation (2021).